Forbidden Son
by shinigami-lives
Summary: Three hundred years in the future, a new assignment for Tsuzuki and Hisoka reveals secrets that were never meant to be known. Crossover with Gundam Wing
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: DON'T OWN IT…EITHER OF THEM, THEY DO NOT BELONG TO ME. HAVE I MADE MYSELF PERFECTLY CLEAR?**

Forbidden Son

Prologue

"Where is he?"

Konoe's voice was level, but filled with barely disguised anger and impatience. Tatsumi shrugged apologetically before turning with raised eyebrows to Hisoka, who sat calmly and disinterestedly next to the empty chair that was meant for his absentee partner. With both Konoe and Tatsumi turned to him, he shrugged and then answered,

"I don't know where he is. He went to Gensoukai last night, saying something terribly important was going on. He mentioned he'd try to get back for this meeting, but he didn't make any promises and he left rather quickly. If one of his shikigami is hurt then he probably won't come back until they're in the clear."

Konoe sighed,

"And he didn't say what had happened?"

Hisoka shrugged again,

"No, he just said that it sounded urgent and then he left."

Konoe glared at Hisoka as if the younger shinigami was hiding Tsuzuki under his shirt. Then he sighed and sat back in his chair,

"I swear Tsuzuki's rubbed off on you."

Hisoka flushed but remained silent. Tatsumi concealed a laugh behind his hand. Glaring at the secretary, Hisoka spoke calmly,

"I'm not about to stop doing my paperwork."

Konoe rolled his eyes dramatically,

"That's a relief."

Hisoka was about to speak when the door to Konoe's office burst open and Tsuzuki whirled in, a hurricane of exuberance, even more so than usual. He picked Hisoka up bodily and whirled him around the room, before calmly returning him to his seat and sitting down. Flushed, Hisoka glared at his partner and hissed,

"What was that for?"

Seemingly unperturbed by his lover's hostility, Tsuzuki beamed happily at all three of the room's other disgruntled occupants. Tatsumi sighed and asked,

"What happened?"

The question included an unspoken 'where the hell were you and why did it take you so long to get here?' Tsuzuki smiled happily and answered,

"Sohryu called a hearing to re-evaluate the conditions of Touda's pardon."

All three of the others blinked. This statement was delivered in a tone that was decidedly too cheerful for the news he had just delivered. Hisoka sighed and asked,

"And what did the hearing decide?"

Tsuzuki beamed at him, as if the younger shinigami had just suggested he take the day off work to go try out a new bakery.

"Well, there was a lot of evidence that wasn't shared with the court, and I was called upon to testify. And, Touda was given a full pardon and had his status and property restored. Which means he's Sohryu's general again. Which means he'll have to do more work. He complained about this loudly. And at length."

Hisoka smiled slightly, Tsuzuki's exuberant attitude in fact concealed the depth of his joy for Touda's release, not to mention how concerned he had been for the dark shikigami. Or how angry he must have been up until the moment of the pardon. Then a question occurred to him and he asked,

"So that means…"

Tsuzuki interrupted him even before he finished the question,

"The control mechanism is _off_. And he won't have to cut his hair all the time."

Konoe spoke up then,

"What does his hair have to do with anything?"

All three of the others turned to Tsuzuki at this, the violet-eyed shinigami knew more about shikigami than just about anyone else in Meifu. He rolled his eyes,

"Touda's not a dragon, but he's a serpent and they're very similar in certain ways. One of the things that they have in common is that their power is in their hair. By forcing Touda to cut his hair so short, they were basically crippling him, particularly in combination with that damned visor."

Hisoka looked at Tsuzuki closely, seeing the worry lines around his eyes and the exhaustion seeping through his normally excellent shields.

"What happened to the visor?"

Tsuzuki smiled,

"Touda toasted it. In the middle of the courtroom."

Hisoka extended his empathy, gently brushing against his lover's shields. Tsuzuki felt his overtures and lowered his shields slightly, allowing Hisoka's probe in, but not letting any of his worry and exhaustion out. Within the shields was what Hisoka had suspected, a whole lot of worry and exhaustion, as well as some anger that had yet to dissipate properly. Hisoka withdrew with a loving caress of his own feelings and then asked,

"And Sohryu…"

It was an open-ended question, but Tsuzuki recognised what it meant,

"He's okay. At least I think he is. But this pardon means that he's starting to move on, that he's starting to heal from what happened then, which is good." A wicked grin then danced over Tsuzuki's face as he watched Konoe lift a cup of coffee to his lips, "Byakko's good for him."

Just as Tsuzuki expected, the sip of coffee Konoe had taken went spewing from his mouth, straight into Tatsumi's face. Tsuzuki sniggered. Tatsumi wiped his glasses clean and glared at his one-time partner.

"You did that on purpose."

Tsuzuki didn't deny it. Konoe glared at him, his face flushed with embarrassment. Hisoka intervened before blood was shed,

"So Touda's Sohryu's general again?"

Tsuzuki nodded,

"Yes. It's not like there's going to be a war any time soon, but he's the first among Sohryu's generals, and when it comes down to it, that makes him Sohryu's second. It's going to be a lot of work, particularly catching with what he's missed over the last eight hundred and sixty odd years. He's not particularly happy about that."

Hisoka smirked,

"Takes after you then."

Tsuzuki flushed but didn't respond. Konoe took that moment to return the meeting to something resembling order.

"Now that that's finished, we have to get back to the purpose of this meeting."

Tsuzuki rolled his eyes dramatically,

"Just give us the mission and we'll go already. Things have been dead boring now the war's over, and I almost did some paperwork the other day."

Konoe sighed in exasperation,

"And we wouldn't want that to happen, would we? Anyway, this is a highly unconventional mission, and I want you to understand it fully before you begin."

Tsuzuki sighed and asked,

"So who's the dead guy?"

Konoe rubbed his eyes tiredly,

"It's not a dead person, that's the problem."

Tsuzuki actually looked interested and Konoe continued,

"You mentioned the war a moment ago. I trust you remember the Gundam Pilots?"

There was no answer needed, but both Tsuzuki and Hisoka nodded anyway. Nobody in Meifu didn't remember the Gundam Pilots. They had made work for the shinigami hell, literally. Konoe continued,

"It's one of the pilots we're asking you to investigate."

Before he could say anything more, Tsuzuki interrupted again,

"But we're not supposed to mess with the living. What's the deal with this guy, he missed his death date or something?"

Konoe shook his head,

"He doesn't have a death date."

Both Tsuzuki and Hisoka stared at him,

"There is no mention of him anywhere, no record of his birth and no mention of when his death is meant to be. He's human, but there's no record of him ever existing."

Hisoka spoke up,

"Which one is it?"

Konoe sighed,

"Pilot 02 – Duo Maxwell. He calls himself 'Shinigami'."

There was absolute silence in the office for several moments. Then Tsuzuki asked,

"Not that I'm not grateful to have a mission that actually sounds interesting, but why are they giving it to us? The Pilots are working with Preventers now, and they're based in Brussels or wherever. Why is the mission coming to our division?"

Konoe nodded at the question, which was reasonable enough and then turned to Tatsumi to provide the explanation,

"Maxwell may claim and appear to be American, but, as near as we can tell, he is actually of Japanese birth. But the case isn't being sent to this division, it's being sent to you, Tsuzuki."

Tsuzuki looked up, concerned,

"Me? Why?"

Tatsumi didn't say anything, just slid a large file across the table to Tsuzuki, who pulled it towards him and flipped it open. There, staring out at him from on top of a large pile of documents, most of them the records of the people Maxwell had killed, was a large coloured photograph. A photograph of a boy with long brown hair in a braid, a pointed, pixie-like face and two striking violet eyes.

Konoe spoke then,

"Now do you understand why they've sent this case to you? Incidentally, that's only the first of a large number of folders like that."

Tsuzuki looked up, confused,

"Who is this kid? I've never met him before in my life. I have no idea who he is, or why he looks so much like me."

Hisoka looked at him, pale, so pale as to be almost grey,

"It's not just you he looks like."

Tsuzuki looked at his lover, concerned,

"What do you mean?"

Hisoka pushed the picture towards him,

"Look close, look at his face."

Tsuzuki pulled the photo towards him again and, after a few moments, looked up, a horrified look on his face,

"I don't know what it is…but…he looks almost like…"

Hisoka nodded,

"Muraki. He looks like Muraki, but he has your eyes and hair, but longer."

Tsuzuki shook his head absently,

"He doesn't have my hair, not exactly, his hair is paler."

Konoe looked at them, concerned,

"Do you think that this Duo Maxwell is in fact Dr. Muraki?"

Hisoka and Tsuzuki exchanged glances, then Tsuzuki spoke,

"Do you think he is?"

Konoe considered this,

"We hadn't seen the likeness, but there is small possibility Muraki would be able to conceal his identity like this."

Tsuzuki nodded at this,

"I agree. Also, I can't imagine Muraki disguising himself as an American teenager, no matter how badly he wanted to hide."

Hisoka shook his head,

"No. I don't think this is Muraki, but this guy definitely isn't trying to hide. A Gundam Pilot and now a Preventer. Calling himself 'Shinigami'. Whoever he is, this kid isn't hiding anything."

There was silence in the office after that, then Tsuzuki nodded sharply,

"We'll do it."

Konoe sighed in relief, but Tatsumi looked concerned. Konoe spoke before the secretary could,

"You are to observe as much about this 'Duo Maxwell' as possible, but are not to fight him unless he attacks you first."

Hisoka nodded while Tsuzuki rolled his eyes. Konoe continued,

"The Brussels division has organised an apartment for you there, and will be contributing to your living allowance. You're to collect as much information about this 'Duo Maxwell' as possible, known associates, etc. You're to report to me, and send copies of your reports to the Chief of the Brussels division."

Hisoka and Tsuzuki rose and the younger shinigami was dragged from the office, clutching the photo under one arm. Tatsumi and Konoe exchanged glances and sighed, Tatsumi rising to follow the other two shinigami from the office.

Tsuzuki and Hisoka were only a little way down the corridor when Tatsumi caught up with them. They stopped and Tsuzuki was just about to speak when Tatsumi asked,

"Are you going to be okay?"

Tsuzuki rolled his eyes,

"We'll be fine, it's just recon, right?"

Tatsumi nodded reluctantly,

"Yes, but…if it is Muraki…"

Tsuzuki paled but kept his composure,

"You've already said it can't be."

Tatsumi conceded this,

"But he may still be involved."

Pale, but composed, Tsuzuki replied,

"We'll be careful."

Tatsumi didn't seem reassured, so Tsuzuki continued,

"Look, Muraki hasn't been seen anywhere for three hundred years, he's not about to turn up out of nowhere now."

Tatsumi accepted this reluctantly,

"Still, watch out for yourselves."

Hisoka spoke then,

"Muraki's not going to be involved in this, and then it's just one kid."

The two then continued down the corridor, leaving Tatsumi behind, looking concerned. Although both of them were out of hearing distance, he murmured,

"Don't underestimate this 'kid'. I think he's more dangerous than any of us know."

TBC.


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: WELL, WHAT DO YOU KNOW! I STILL DON'T OWN THEM. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?**

Chapter 1

'_Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.' Josephine Hart_

The problem with being assigned to follow and observe the behaviour of a former terrorist, now government agent, was that it was never as interesting as it would have been thought to be. Thus, within a week of following 'Duo Maxwell' around Tsuzuki Asato was bored. The activity was so boring that even the excitement of being in a new city wasn't enough to distract him, and even Hisoka was veering towards boredom with the assignment.

Mostly the problem with the assignment was that there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary with the man-child they were following. Other than being a trained spy and assassin, not to mention a former terrorist and government agent, Duo Maxwell seemed perfectly normal, if a little excitable. He was, if there were such a thing, a perfectly normal reformed terrorist.

Although they had sent countless reports back to Meifu stating this, Hisoka and Tsuzuki still remained stationed watching over the teen. What's more, the money for their expenses kept coming in, more than they had ever received for any other job. What was it about this teen, other than obvious prodigious ability at leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake, that made Konoe, and who ever was in charge of this branch of the European division, so nervous?

Even the wide variety of confectionary stores in the city failed to hold Tsuzuki's attention for the duration of what was turning out to be a very long and tedious mission. Nonetheless, with the surplus in their budget, Tsuzuki still dragged Hisoka along on his daily pilgrimage to his favourite. Fortunately enough for their being able to at least pretend to be concentrating on their mission with this daily excursion, this patisserie was in fact located within a block of the Preventers' headquarters, and also appeared to be a particular favourite of the aforementioned teen terrorist. Tsuzuki was thrilled…Tatsumi less so when he received their budget reports.

Other than that, however, the boy seemed to keep to what appeared to be a very mundane schedule – he got up, dressed, drank an obscene amount of coffee, left his apartment, drove to work on a motorcycle that made Tsuzuki's fingers twitch compulsively, spent his morning avoiding doing paperwork and annoying his partner, took a long lunch break, spent the afternoon on the practice range or annoying his partner some more, then he went home, actually did some of the paperwork he had avoided all day, before eating take-out and going to bed (with a gun and several bladed weapons close at hand, of course). For a reformed terrorist who wore almost as much black as Touda, his behaviour seemed relatively boring.

But he was redeemed in Tsuzuki's eyes at least by his taste in dessert. The patisserie, according to Tsuzuki's connoisseur taste-buds, was excellent, producing a truly terrific apple pie with enough cream artfully poured over it to give a diabetic an attack just from looking at it for more than five seconds. Unfortunately, they also did a chocolate fudge cake that might better be described as a chocolate fudge mountain, and that morning, as they entered once again into the patisserie, at what they hoped to be a discrete distance behind their target, Tsuzuki found himself facing a serious dilemma regarding his potential choice of dessert.

Thus, as they stood at the glass and chrome counter, Tsuzuki chewing absently on his lip as he attempted to make up his mind, Hisoka tapping his foot, blowing up his bangs and conspicuously checking his watch every forty-five seconds, they were so distracted and off-guard from their boredom, that they did not notice their own target approaching them in a guarded yet angry manner. Tsuzuki had just decided that he wanted neither the apple pie nor the chocolate cake, and was just about to order the custard tart, when he felt the cold metal of a gun barrel pressed low in his back. He turned carefully to Hisoka, about to whine that he was ready to order and that there was no need to get nasty, but then he saw that Hisoka's face was even paler than usual, probably due to the glint of a switchblade digging into his clavicle.

The switchblade was held firm in a slender gloved hand, the partner to which pressed the gun into Tsuzuki's own back. The owner of the hand's was their target, his usual mobile and expressive face implacably frozen into an icy mask. Silence spread through the café on glacial wings and the smiling girl behind the counter let out a small shriek before falling silent as the noise jarred the stillness of the air. Amazingly enough, she gathered her composure enough to turn to the heavily-armed seventeen year-old and ask in a shaky voice,

"Is there a problem here?"

Hisoka snorted slightly, or he would have, had not every breath he took further reminded him of the sharp blade running dangerously close to his jugular (AN: Author has been placing too much KHII and wrote 'jagular' instead of 'jugular' here…poor Pooh Bear). Was there a problem? An armed terrorist was holding two people at gun/knife-point in her café, and she wanted to know if there was a problem. But Maxwell smiled disarmingly, though not lowering either weapon, and spoke in an even voice,

"No, Sandra, no problem, just some Preventer business."

There was a strange amicable expression on the boy's face, which contrasted strongly with his strange priestly garb and the weapons he bore. Hisoka found himself reminded even more of Tsuzuki, who could summon Suzaku one moment and be pulling an impressive set of puppy-dog eyes the next minute. But the explanation seemed to calm the girl, who obviously knew Maxwell well enough to recognise his career. She smiled shakily and spoke in what she must have presumed to be a level tone,

"Oh…then, if it's not a problem, would you mind taking care of your…business outside; my manager's not here and I have customers to serve."

Tsuzuki wanted to insist that they were two of the customers she had to serve, but the gun digging into his spine persuaded him not to. Casting a last forlorn look at the mournful custard tart, he allowed himself to be escorted out of the patisserie by the gun wielding lunatic. Said lunatic directed them into the ubiquitous dark alley required for such exchanges and, removing the knife from Hisoka's throat, but keeping the gun levelled at both of them, he spoke,

"Ok. Who the hell are you and why the fuck have you been following me?"

Tsuzuki and Hisoka exchanged glances, and Tsuzuki reluctantly spoke, not knowing quite what to say,

"Ano…I'm Tsuzuki Asato and this is my partner, Kurosaki Hisoka…We're here from th-"

But before Tsuzuki could continue his stumbling explanation, Maxwell laughed, lowering the gun as a genuine smile spread over his face, causing a remarkable metamorphosis in his appearance. As Tsuzuki met those violet eyes he had never seen on another human, he had the bizarre feeling of looking into a fun-house mirror, that twisted his appearance but still showed his reflection. The teen spoke, his voice jubilant,

"You came, I can't believe it, you actually came."

Confused, but feeling that he wasn't likely to be shot within the next few minutes, Tsuzuki felt himself relax slightly, letting go of the ofuda he had been trying to subtly remove from his pocket without attracting too much attention. But a glance at his partner showed the Hisoka was by no means willing to relax in front of someone who had killed more people than even Touda had managed to. He spoke, his voice as cold as Tsuzuki had ever heard it, though he supposed their recent proximity to sharp point death had something to do with that,

"How do you know of us?"

The braided man let out an embarrassed laugh, flushing slightly and seemingly unconsciously slipping into a posture identical to Tsuzuki's own whenever he was caught doing or knowing something that he shouldn't. Hisoka found himself doing an involuntary double take, his eyes flicking from the teen to his partner and then back again. However, before any more could be said, an electronic repetition of what sounded disturbingly like a funeral dirge broke the quiet of the alley.

Cursing, Maxwell grabbed for his phone, checking the Caller ID and flipping the device open with a wicked smile that made the hairs on the back of Hisoka's neck stand on end.

"Shinigami's house of pain, what can I do for you lady?...Yeah, yeah, don't get your panties in a twist….you know, I don't think that's physically possible…Anyway, I'm on my break, so if this is about the perilous paper pile of perdition…What? Do we have a visual? Fuck! I'll be there five minutes ago…just, don't piss him off."

As the conversation continued, all traces of mirth disappeared from Duo's face to be replaced by anger and a threat of pain. Finally, he snapped the phone shut, turning back to Tsuzuki and Hisoka, his face set in a coldly furious mask.

"Come on, we have to get going."

Hisoka frowned,

"What's going on?"

"The name 'Muraki' ring a bell? Yeah, thought it might. Well, he's causing mayhem back at HQ and we need to be there now."

Tsuzuki paled,

"Muraki's here?"

"No, he's at the _other_ Preventers' HQ, yes he's here. And we can only hope he's still there when we get there, because I owe him a scythe shoved somewhere painful."

Hisoka managed to regain composure as set off in a run to follow the departing Preventer,

"Get in line. If anyone's going to castrate that bastard, it's going to be me."

Duo's laughter echoed back to them,

"I like you, now let's get going."

TBC.

_AN: _I am so sorry about the delay on this, and hope that some of you guys still remember the hell I'm talking about.


End file.
